Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 08:36:09 +0000
From: Clare Howell
Subject: InYourFace
MEDIA ADVISORY - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Editor: Clare Howell (718) 638-7062
clareq@gpac.org
.TRANSEXUAL FILES DISCRIMINATION CLAIM,
ALLEGES TAMPERING WITH U.S. MAIL
.DC SAYS RESCUE WORKER HAD 'RIGHT'
TO TAUNT DYING VICTIM
.PBS HIGHLIGHTS USE OF GID AGAINST
QUEER KIDS
.TRANSEXUAL WITNESS TO BIRMINGHAM
CHURCH BOMBING DIES
TRANSEXUAL FILES DISCRIMINATION CLAIM,
ALLEGES TAMPERING WITH U.S. MAIL
======================================
[Corvallis, OR: 10 Feb 98] TRANS-ACTIVIST ASHLEY
Sinclaire has filed a compliant with the Oregon
Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), charging
that the Corvallis Mail Center violated her
civil rights and Corvallis' anti-discrimination
law.
She alleges that an employee of the Center, a
private company that provides mail boxes and
postal services, wrote a hate letter about
her which led her to suspect that the employee
had opened mail she had posted there.
Local police say there is no evidence of a
crime and have declined to pursue the matter.
However, if the allegation is true, the Mail
Center employee has not only violated
Corvallis' anti-discrimination law but
committed a federal crime.
Ms. Sinclaire changed her name in the Spring of
1997 and completed her transition. Several
months later she received a letter from a man,
Donald Snook, who is imprisoned in Washington
state and with whom she is involved in a
romantic relationship. She and Snook
corresponded frequently using the Mail Center.
Snook supports Ms. Sinclaire's transition
and forwarded her the letter:
"Don--Ashley let me read your letter. I hope you
know she is a he. His reall [sic] name is
[Ashley's former name]. He is a fag. You are
getting letters from a man who wants to be a
woman. Think about it. He wants to move to San
Francisco. This place is known as gay bay... HA,
HA, HA, HA. You stupid ass. You want pussy so
bad you will let a fag turn you on."
Neither Sinclaire nor Snook knew the employee
who wrote the letter. When confronted by police,
the employee, the daughter of the Mail Center
owner, admitted she had written the letter, but
denied opening Sinclaire's mail.
The employee said she figured out that Sinclaire
was "pretending" to be a woman and that she
wanted to warn Snook. The BOLI is currently
investigating the matter because Corvallis'
anti-discrimination law that prohibits
discrimination in public accomodations based
on sexual orientation.
###
DC SAYS RESCUE WORKER HAD 'RIGHT' TO TAUNT
DYING VICTIM
==========================================
[Washington, DC: 10 Feb 98] WASHINGTON DC
Counsel John Ferren contends that an
Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) had a
'First Amendment right' to shout derogatory
names at transexual woman Tyra Hunter, who
lay dying in the street.
The Washington Blade reports that the Counsel's
statement was part of the city's response to
a $10 million wrongful-death suit brought by
Hunter's mother. The city did withdraw
language from its brief asserting that the
city's Fire Department is exempt from DC's
Human Rights Act which bans discrimination
based on sexual orientation and personal
appearance.
The unnamed EMT was applying first aid to
Ms. Hunter after a 1995 car crash when he
discovered that Hunter had a penis, whereupon
he ceased giving aid and began making
derogatory remarks that were witnessed by
horrified bystanders.
###
PBS HIGHLIGHTS USE OF GID AGAINST QUEER KIDS
============================================
[New York, NY: 9 Feb 98] REFLECTING THE
escalating debate over Gender Identity
Disorder (GID), a segment of PBS's respected
gay newsmagazine, 'In The Life,' last night
joined the chorus of voices questioning
whether GID is not another covert means of
controlling difference.
The segment, produced by host Katherine Linton,
featured an interview with GID proponent
Kenneth Zucker, a well-known doctor whose
primary practice is "curing" children of GID
so they don't grow up gay, lesbian, bisexual,
or transgendered.
Zucker identified GID as a symptom that could
lead to homosexuality in later life. In a
surreal moment, as he sat across from the
openly gay, short-haired, slacks-clad Linton,
he explained that masculine dress and behavior
in girls can be diagnosed and treated with
therapy and behavioral conditioning so they
don't become lesbians.
The segment also featured responses from the
National Center for Lesbian Rights' staff
attorney, Shannon Minter, an out male transexual,
and GenderPAC's Riki Wilchins. Both noted that,
since homosexuality was removed as a psychiatric
disorder, GID has become the new way to
pathologize queerness.
Noted Wilchins, "GID is a solution in search of
a problem... Gender variance is good."
GID was first created as an illness in the early
1960s. Although 'In The Life' dealt only with
children, GID is also used to pathologize gender-
variant adults, particularly those requesting
hormones or sex-reassignment surgery.
###
TRANSEXUAL WITNESS TO CHURCH BOMBING DIES
=========================================
[Birmingham, AL: 10 Feb 98] PETE SMITH, WHOSE
testimony against his Klu Klux Klansman uncle,
Robert Chambliss, led to the only conviction in
the 1963 bombing that killed 4 black girls,
died of lung cancer at 57.
The AP reports that, at the 1977 trial, Smith
was a woman, Elizabeth Cobbs, and a Methodist
minister. She testified that she was with
Chambliss as he watched TV reports that Sunday
morning of the bombing and heard him say, "It
wasn't supposed to hurt anybody. It didn't go
off when it was supposed to." Chambliss, found
guilty of murder in the bombing, died in prison
in 1985.
Smith underwent sexual reassignment surgery in
1981. He published an autobiography in 1994
naming dozens of people he suggested might have
been involved in the bombing. Federal
investigators have long believed that at least
4 men were involved. They reopened the case last
summer. U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said that
Smith's death will not affect the investigation.
###
Subscriptions. Please send:
subscribe iyf-online or:
unsubscribe iyf-online to:
MajorDomo@Apocalypse.org
For prior press releases,
check the GenderPAC website
at: http://www.Gpac.org
(c) 1996 InYourFace
Our on-line news-only service
for gender activism. When re-
postin